Cowenesque Valley proved too much for a young Montgomery squad, improving to 3-1 on the season, with a 44-24 victory on Friday night at Montgomery.

Montgomery’s Caden Finck ran hard all night totaling 193 yards rushing on 23 carries and one touchdown before leaving the game in the fourth quarter.

Cowanesque Valley’s Fletcher Good continued his strong running performances carrying for 141 yards on 11 carries with one touchdown.

It was a fun night at Montgomery in a game that featured two of the area’s top running backs in both Fletcher and Finck.

“When we execute, we’re a good football team and we’re tough to stop, but when we don’t execute it’s the opposite,” Montgomery coach Cory Tice said. “We were down a kid tonight, but that’s no excuse. CV is good football team and they deserve a lot of credit.

After a quiet first quarter that seemed like the two teams were jockeying for field position, Cowanesque Valley opened the scoring taking over at the Montgomery 44-yard line following a punt return. On second-and-7 from the 41, CV quarterback Graham Hess scrambled up the middle 25 yards to the Montgomery 16. Following a CV penalty, two plays later Graham Hess found running back Dave Hess down the left side for a 36-yard touchdown reception for an 8-0 lead with eight minutes until halftime.

Following a Montgomery turnover on downs near midfield, Hess completed a 25-yard TD pass to Good down the right sideline. The two-point conversion run by Dave Hess put the Indians ahead 16-0 with 1:38 remaining in the second quarter.

“We’re a young team, which isn’t an excuse, but we’re 0-3 and we need to find that warrior mentality that we’ll live and die as a team playing for each other,” Tice said.

CV opened scoring in the third quarter on a 15-yard touchdown run by back Tim Freeman. The two point attempt was no good, but Cowanesque took a 22-0 lead.

Montgomery got on the scoreboard less than a minute later when Finck took a handoff from his own 47 a and ran 53 yards to the house off the right tackle for his longest run of the game to help cut the deficit to 22-8 wtih 5:54 left in the third after a successful Coy Bryson two-point conversion run.

Following a Montgomery fumble that was returned to the 25, CV responded with a Hess QB keeper TD run of 12 yards down the right sideline and increased Cowanesque’s lead to 28-8 with 1:43 in the third remaining.

On secod-and-7 from their own 42, it was Finck again doing damage as he gashed the CV defense for another big run of 48 yards to the CV 10, setting up a first down and and first-and-goal. Bryson did the rest on two carries, rumbling in from the four on second down and also scoring the two point conversion to make it 28-16.

CV seemed content to put the game away early in the fourth as Freeman ran for 15 yards on first down, setting up a touchdown run by CV back Fletcher Good with 11:14 remaining. The two-point conversion was good on a pass from Hess to Hess making the score 36-16. CV clamped down from there getting the ball back on a three-and-out punt by Montgomery and CV’s Good did the rest scoring on a long TD run on a Wing-T formation right trap of 61 yards.

Freeman’s run was good for two more and CV had cemented its lead at 44-16 with 8:19 remaining.

“We’ll have to play better and cause more fumbles and turnovers next week in the Old Shoe Game against Muncy,” Tice said. “There are more games to play.”

Finck left the field on the ensuing kickoff return. Montgomery was not done as it scored one more time on a third down carry by junior Bryson, who’s two-point conversion capped the game’s scoring with 0:51 remaining at 44-24.

The night also featured four inductees into the Montgomery High School Athletic Hall of Fame who were honored at halftime in Lindsay (Sampsell) Dalrymple (1998, basketball, soccer, softball, track and field); Kevin Mowery (2005, wrestling, football, baseball, track and field, golf); Kyle Mowery (2005, wrestling, football, baseball, track and field, golf); and Jaryd Steinbacher (2005, wrestling, football, track and field).

Cowanesque Valley 44, Montgomery 24

Cowanesque Valley 0 16 12 16 — 44

Montgomery 0 0 16 08 — 24

Second Quarter

CV – Graham Hess to Dave Hess, 36 yard pass (G. Hess keeper), 8:36

CV- Graham Hess to Fletcher Good, 25 yard pass (D. Hess run), 1:38

Third Quarter

CV – Tim Freeman, 15 run (CV No Good), 6:47

M – Caden Fink, 53 run (Bryson run), 5:54

CV- G. Hess, 12 run (CV No Good), 1:43

M – Coy Bryson, 4 run (Bryson run), 0:02

Fourth Quarter

CV- F. Good, 41 run (G. Hess to D. Hess), 11:19

CV – G. Hess, 61 run (Freeman run), 8:19

M – Bryson, 7 run (Bryson run), 0:51

TEAM STATISTICS

CV M

First Downs 12 10

Rushes-yards 42-302 50-303

Passing yards 117 0

Comp.-Att.-Int. 5-8-0 0-3-1

Total yards 419 303

Fumbles-lost 1-0 2-1

Penalties-yards 4-30 8-60

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: Cowanesque Valley, Fletcher Good 11-141, 1 TD; Tim Freeman 17-106, 1 TD; Dave Hess 10-24; Graham Hess 04-31, 1 TD;

Montgomery, Caden Fink 23-193, 1 TD; Coy Bryson 19-67, 1 TD; Garrett Ulrich 3-11; Parker Persing 1-0; Nevin Beavhal 2-19; Seth McClintock 2-13;

PASSING: Cowanesque Valley, Graham Hess 5-8-0, 117 yards, 2 TD. Montgomery, Parker Persing 0-3-1, 92 yards.

RECEIVING: Cowanesque Valley, Tim Freeman 1-7; Dave Hess 1-36, 1 TD; Fetcher Good 3-74, 1 TD.